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Anthony's
poor legal representation
Following
years of poor legal representation, Anthony decided to file a motion in
the courts asking for a new attorney, otherwise he would drop all his
appeals (therefore leading to his execution). In a rare move by the courts,
they admitted that Anthony had received poor representation and agreed
for a new attorney to be appointed. This request was made in November
2001.
Anthony was
obviously elated at this news, as he might now have a good chance at proving
his innocence. Unfortunately, the appointment of a new attorney made matter
worse.
Apparently,
his new attorney, John D Nation was appointed on 25 February 2002. Due
to the time constraints of the appeals system, Anthony had to have his
next appeal filed by 23 October 2002. Anthony heard nothing of the new
appointment and had no way of finding out who his new attorney was (indeed,
John Nation should have contacted Anthony).
One of Anthony's
supporters in Australia sent an email to Anthony's previous attorney,
Jan E Hemphill, on 20 April 2002, who replied the same day informing that
John Nation had been appointed several months ago.
The supported
sent a fax to Nation on 27 April, to which a reply was received on 28
April. Over the coming months, Nation still made no contact with Anthony.
The Austrailian support then wrote to Mr Nation on 25 May 2002 and 21
June 2002, with no response received and no contact with Anthony made.
You will see from this site that Anthony has a whole
range of evidence that would help in his case, and it was therefore
important for Nation to contact him to get this evidence for use in the
appeal (which needed to be filed within 4 months, otherwise Anthony would
face immediate execution).
By 23 July
2002 (three months before the appeal was due to be filed), Nation still
hadn't contacted Anthony, so the supporter from Australia submitted an
Affidavit to the courts highlighting the contact that had be made with
Nation and the fact he hadn't contacted Anthony). It is worth pointing
out at this stage that Nation had never ONCE contacted Anthony, FIVE months
after being appointed, with only THREE months left to create a file the
appeal.
The affidavit
prompted John D Nation to contact Anthony by letter which read as follows:
Sep 12,
2002
Dear Mr Neely [spelt incorrectly]
I have been appointed by Judge Jorge Solis, United States District Judge
for the Northern District of Texas, to represent you on your federal writ
of habeas corpus proceedings.
I apologize that I have not contacted you earlier: I have been completing
two writs of certiorari, on in a death penalty case, and this has put
me behind in other activities. Please be assured, however, that I am fully
aware of your case and fully prepared to file a petition for writ of habeas
corpus in your case by the due date of October 23, 2002.
A word or two about my appointment: under 18 U.S.C. 3006A, my appointment
to represent you covers the following proceedings: writ application in
the district court; appeal to the Fifth Circuit, petition for writ of
certiorari to the US Supreme Court, and clemency application to the State
of Texas. I propose to do this as regards our meeting.
I will come to see you in the next couple of weeks to outline the procedures
involved in preparing and filing our writ application in the district
court and I will come again to visit you shortly before the writ application
is filed so that we can have any further discussions that are necessary.
I have enjoyed consulting your web-site as it has given me a good deal
of insight into the evidence - or lack of it - in your case. I agree with
the recent letter sent to you by Mr Wiercioch. I think the time during
which the courts delayed in appointing me should be returned to you through
equitable tolling. I will file a motion to this effect next week; although,
like Mr Wiercioch, I do believe that we should be ready to file the petition
by October 23rd.
A few words about me: unlike other court-appointed attorneys you may have
known, I want to win your case. Everything I do in your case in all things
will be toward the goal of winning your case. I only ask that you trust
me and work with me in this regard. I have seen Magistrate Stickney's
order on your motion to have all of your issues reviewed at this time.
I understand that you filed this motion because you had not heard from
me yet.
I would warn your (sic), however, that the Magistrate is serious: if you
file further pro-se motions, he might very well remove my appointment
and make you proceed by yourself. As your life is at stake, I would not
proceed pro-se through the federal courts. They will not give you any
slack at all because of your pro-se status, and if you read recent Fifth
Circuit cases, executions of prisoners, even without meaningful review,
does not give them much pause.
Therefore, I must advise you, in the strongest possible terms, do not
file any more pro-se motions or other pro-se pleadings. I will look forward
to meeting you in the very near future.
Very truly yours
John D Nation
You will
notice that this letter was written on 12 September 2002, leaving just
under six weeks to meet Anthony, go through all the evidence that Anthony
has put together on his case and file an appeal.
Needless to say, despite all the promises in his letter, Nation NEVER
visited Anthony (this is a clear breach of "Strickland v Washington").
Nation filed what can only be described as a "standard" appeal,
without EVER contacting Anthony (we can only assume because of this fact
that the appeal will be denied).
At the time of writing, January 2003, Nation still hasn't visited or attempted
to contact Anthony.
Whether you believe Anthony is innocent (which we do) or not, consider
this: Assuming he is innocent, how will he have a chance to prove himself
when his attorney will not visit or even contact Anthony? This is not
justice.
If you would
like to help, please either sign Anthony's petition,
or contact John Nation at the following address:
John Nation
(Attorney at Law)
2650 Maxus Energy Tower
Dallas
Texas
USA
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Useful
links and downloads:
The CAN (Charles Anthony Nealy) Network
of Friends
Case for retrial
Summary and full report of
Abuses and Neglect of Charles Anthony Nealy (Word
format 90k)
Anthony's Life
Anthony on the Death Penalty
Links
Letters
Lifelines
Letter
from Christina - Anthony's pen friend
Sign the retrial petition
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